Back to normal

WOW! It is hard for me to believe that we have had something going on in our lives that was life "disrupting" since July. As most of my readers know (all three of them) we have been getting the house ready to be painted since late July. It's funny but the prep for the new paint and the new carpet may have been the most life altering thing we did, not the paint or the carpet or our guests that immediately followed.

In getting ready we cleaned stuff out. I mean cleaned a BUNCH of stuff out. It is amazing how much we accumulated in being together just 13 years together. Out the door went books, art, furniture, kitchen stuff and more. Some sold, some donated, some still waiting in the garage or at our storage shed for disposal to be sold or donated but a lot is gone. Kathleen's entire loft is still just her desk (which will also go soon) and chair and it was FULL! The green recliner that she brought with her when we got married is still sitting in the garage.

And I am going to end this now and come back to this topic. Much has happened since I started it on Saturday morning. I will come back to this later.

Its so nice...

Yes, it is so nice. Nice to sleep in our own bed, in our own room. To take a shower in our own bathroom. To eat dinner in our own kitchen. To make my own coffee and drink it in the house alone and by myself. I can't tell you how nice it is.

As I told Joel (Whitaker Painting) when I handed him the check for a paint job incredibly well done, "Don't take this wrong, you guys did a hell of a job, but get the hell out!" I also told him I would be thrilled to be a reference and to talk to people who were considering having him paint their house. I would tell them two things. That they do a wonderful job painting and that if they are smart they (future customers) will do themselves a BIG favor and leave town for two weeks while their house is painted.

Seriously, we loved them and the job they did and we told them we want them back sometime soon to paint the two rooms we didn't do (Bob and Judy's room and their bath). Joel said, "Great. Call us when you are going on a trip." So the message here folks is, "Going to get your house painted---leave town!"

Today is all about rehanging pictures, bringing furniture back in and getting ready for the flooring folks this coming week...and our 11 wedding anniversary. Can't believe it's been 11 wonderful years. And this is also the anniversary (today) of our original Martini Mates cruise where we met all our best friends and both (or maybe all three) of my readers. Happy anniversary everyone! And especially to my sweetie.

Things get better...at last

Tonight we have most of our house back. We got the kitchen back this afternoon. We actually got to eat dinner at home. I cannot tell you how great it was to sit at our own counter and eat dinner.

Kathleen just complained that she is "freezing." Last night at this time it was in the mid-eighties. Right now it is 57. I can't tell you how great it is to have the temperature be my age. It is wonderful.

Just before Kathleen got home Joel came down stairs and said that he and John were going to get coffee while the first coat of purple in our bedroom was drying before they put on the second coat. He said they were done with everything in the kitchen. Words cannot describe how happy I got. When Kathleen got home we put the kitchen back together in no time at all, ate dinner and I brought up the first of the door pictures for the dining room and they are all on the wall now. YAHOO!

Tomorrow Joel says he will be back and finish up in under an hour. That means at that point we will have the entire house back! I am thrilled. We aren't done completely yet but we are really close. On Monday two things are happening. One, someone is coming to install flooring in the downstairs and master bathrooms. Then the window washers show up and wash all our windows, inside and out as well as our screens.

Then Tuesday is the final day of the big redo. The carpet people show up early in the morning and are supposed to be done by the end of the day. And then we get our house back completely. I want to say this though. After all this if we ever have our house painted again (on the inside) I would pack up and go on vacation. Sharing the house with painters is something that one should never do. And I say that about painters I really like. Joel, Amy, John and the rest of their crew are the nicest people ever but I told them this afternoon, I am thrilled to death that they are almost done and gone. But it looks great. And I am glad we did it. Just thrilled they are 99% done.

My reader complained

My reader has complained that I didn't post yesterday. To be honest I was just too damn tired and hot last night. Joel and the crew (minus John) showed up yesterday and got the walls painted. That's the good news. The even better news is that they will be back today and this might be THE LAST DAY! OMG, that would be wonderful. To start thinking about getting our life back.

And the weather has finally broken. After highs in the 90s for the last three days, we are not supposed to get into the 70s today. Thank you Mother Nature.

Condo-wise, yesterday the lady who drove all over the new black top and ruined it is now officially off the hook. After all she did, the job was done so poorly that when the garbage trucks came in yesterday to pick up trash and recycling, they ruined it completely. We now have HUGE ruts in most of the streets in the complex. I am sick and mad about it. It's like all the work I did was for nothing. All the knocking on doors, the towing of cars. It will all have to be done again. And they didn't come back to stripe like they said they were going to nor did they come back to unmask manhole covers or anything. And our DAMN condo manager is still gone and won't be back until Monday. So we have to stew on this until then. If I were him, I wouldn't come back. I would just stay far away from me.

So that was yesterday. And by the time we got home from eating dinner out again (I am sick of restaurants) I just wanted to crash, not rehash the whole day which in reality was pretty bad.